Many Florida fishermen do not realize that Florida has long been
home to a reproducing population of striped bass in the St. Johns and
Ocklawaha River systems. When the glaciers melted after the last ice
age, Florida began to warm up, but the cooler temperate climate back
then, and the higher elevation above sea level (the peninsula was
another 300 feet above sea level), meant that there was more cold
falling water, riffles and more likely, spawning in cooler streams. As
air temperature warmed and sea level rose, coastal Florida striper
habitat became more limited. Based on historical fishing records it
appears that the last holdout for striped bass spawning grounds on the
Florida east coast was the Ocklawaha River. All of today's stripers
caught in the St. Johns River are hatchery reared fish.

So what happened to the Ocklawaha spawning population? Its demise
was likely caused by a dam and other barriers on the lower reaches of
the Ocklawaha River and a plan to cross Florida with a barge canal. The
canal was squelched in the 1970s after much construction had already
taken place, including the construction of the Rodman Dam and Reservoir.
This changed water flows, eliminated riffle habitat that did exist, and
most notably, produced a barrier to striper migration. There may have
been some holdout stripers spawning after the dam construction, but
today there is no evidence that stripers spawn naturally anywhere along
the Florida east coast.

The Rodman Reservoir, located near the confluence of the Ocklawaha
and St. Johns Rivers is today well-known for its large-mouth bass
population. Largemouth bass are not closely related to striped bass. The
common snook is actually more closely related to striped bass than
largemouth bass. They both belong to their own families, Centro-pomidae
for the snook with five species in Florida; Moronidae for the striped
bass with three other species including the white bass. The sunshine
bass is a hatchery produced cross between the striper and white bass.
The largemouth bass is in a large North American family, Centrarchidae,
with 31 species that includes all the sunfishes (freshwater pan-fish),
such as bluegill, redears (shellcrackers) and spotted sunfish
(stumpknockers).

Anyone who has played a striper on the line has got to admit that
it is just as much fun, or more so, than a big largemouth bass. So why
not bring back the striped bass spawning population to the Ocklawaha
River? Why not figure out a way to get these great gamefish past the
Rodman Dam?

The local economic benefit of having the only native spawning
striper fishery in Florida could be sensational.

Tripletail, the enigma

If you are not familiar with the tripletail, Lobotes surinamensis,
you really need to get acquainted with this fish. They fed my family
when I needed groceries. They are remarkable fish that have been
virtually ignored by most serious fish scientists. Most scientific
accounts talk about this fish associating with sargassum weed floating
offshore and occurring in the ocean off Cape Cod. However, they are
actually a common to abundant inshore tropical and subtropical species
found around the world. The sightings north of Cape Hatteras are
associated with their seasonal drift north with the Gulf Stream and its
warm core eddies.

In Florida, adult and juvenile tripletails are often encountered
inshore in the southern half of the Indian River Lagoon and other areas
around the state, almost always in association with a vertical
structure, like channel markers, natural or manmade.

According to knowledgeable guides, tripletails apparently spawn on
the shoals off Cape Canaveral, as ripe individuals have been caught in
groups there. The fertilized eggs develop as they float in the open
ocean. Once the larvae metamorphose into juveniles they typically show a
yellow background body color with dark spots with elongated marks
scattered across the yellow background color. This is actually a
camouflage pattern used by this ambush predator to obtain unwary prey
and also to avoid predation as a small juvenile. They most often take a
posture where they float on their side at the surface under a mat of
sargassum weed. In a tropical estuary, they are most often observed
around or under yellowing mangrove leaves as they drift about with the
tides.

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Juvenile tripletails are a perfect mangrove leaf mimic. Years ago I
fooled more than one visiting colleague who thought I only kept dead
mangrove leaves, not fish, in my laboratory aquarium. While in the
sidefloating position the juvenile tripletail can ambush any small
invertebrates and fish that decide to seek cover under the floating
mangrove leaves, or a sargassum weed line.

Of course, at larger sizes tripletail can no longer mimic leaves
and typically take on a gray body color with some dark markings. They
are still ambush predators feeding on small fish. Tripletails slowly
move around pilings, often head up or down, blending in with the
structure.

They must be very successful with this behavior as they can reach
well over 50 pounds, even in channels of shallow estuaries like the
Indian River Lagoon. If caught on hook and line they can put up a fight
worth the effort and are excellent table fare. That big gray fish
floating behind the channel marker is not a mirage. If you see the
tripletail eat something you recognize, drop me a note on it as we know
very little about this animal. And next time you are out fishing the
flats, take a close look at the yellow mangrove leaves floating. You
might be pleasantly surprised to see a young, disguised tripletail.

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